IMO, there are reasonable sources of water in the bilge, and others that should be eliminated.

Reasonable Sources:
1. Conventional stuffing box that needs to drip a bit to work right.
2. Rain coming in through an anchor hawse pipe if your anchor locker drains into the bilge (doesn't count if your anchor drains overboard).
3. Rain coming in through the inside of a mast with in mast halyards.
4. Other vents for wet lockers that drain into the bilge.
5. Air conditioner condensation if it drains into the bilge (doesn't count if it drains overboard or into a sump).
6. Fridge drain (but you might want to plug this one, spilt milk in the bilge can get pretty nasty smelling fast, and cool air likes to run down hill).

Sources that should be eliminated:
1. Leaks below the water line such as thru hulls, hoses, strainers, etc.
2. Leaks above the water line such as poorly bedded deck hardware, chainplates, hatch gaskets, etc.
3. Hull/deck joint leaks (these repairs can be nasty).

As others have said, its more important to identify the sources as the "reasonable" ones than the exact amount of bilge water you experience, which may depend for example, if it rained. Finding above the water line leaks can be a painful experience. Wait for the rain or use a hose. At least in my experience, the place the water shows up is never obviously close to the place the water came in, especially when deck hardware is involved.
Oh, and I'm assuming we're not talking about wooden boats!

nearly all the water I get in the bilge comes from driving rain coming in through the companionway and either weeping in between the boards, or pouring in faster than the track drains will empty, and therefore over filling and dripping inside.

I hope that the new bimini will eliminate a large ammount of that. I'm actually heading down to the boat this afternoon to look for evidence of new rain leaks following a very heavy downpour yesterday.

nearly all the water I get in the bilge comes from driving rain coming in through the companionway and either weeping in between the boards, or pouring in faster than the track drains will empty, and therefore over filling and dripping inside.

I hope that the new bimini will eliminate a large ammount of that. I'm actually heading down to the boat this afternoon to look for evidence of new rain leaks following a very heavy downpour yesterday.

We solved this problem by making a Sunbrella cover for the companionway. It is a flat sheet with darts where it makes the turn from the overhead hatch down over the boards. We hemmed the edges and installed a few snaps to keep it in place. Our hatch boards are smoked acrylic (or maybe lexan - were installed by the PO), so the cover has the added advantage of keeping out light in the morning, and giving us some privacy at night. It is also handy to use when there is a light rain as we don't need to keep moving the boards in and out, just secure the canvas cover over the open companionway. Finally, it also protects the teak slides for the hatch boards, which means less frequent varnishing. PM me if you want pics or more details. It is a fairly easy project and is one of the first we tried with our Sailrite sewing machine (prior to moving on to the bimini).

Keep your bilges dry or at least to the very minimum level. Especially if you have a wide beam nearly flat bottom vessel. And Rail Meat may not compensate for all of that bilge water.....
Free surface effect can be hazardous, especially to power vessels...
Keep your tanks either full or empty. In between is called "slack tank", and this can cause a problem for you also. You don't want a slack tank if possible.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Maritime InstructorTo view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

By choosing to post the reply above you agree to the rules you agreed to when joining Sailnet.
Click Here to view those rules.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the SailNet Community forums, you must first register. Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.Please note: After entering 3 characters a list of Usernames already in use will appear and the list will disappear once a valid Username is entered.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

OR

Log-in

User Name

Password

Remember Me?

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.